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Japan: The Emperor's Sacred Paddy
Description
Why does the Emperor of Japan — head of state of one of the most technologically advanced nations on Earth — wade into a rice paddy every year to plant seedlings by hand, and harvest them in autumn by torchlight? How did a grain that arrived from the Korean peninsula three thousand years ago become not just the foundation of Japanese civilisation, but the source of imperial legitimacy, the unit of feudal taxation, and the subject of the world's first commodity futures market? And what does it mean that turtle shell divination was used in 2019 to select the rice fields for a new Emperor's enthronement ceremony?
Join John as he tells the story of Japan and rice — the sun goddess, the koku economy, and the three-thousand-year thread connecting the first Yayoi farmers to the Imperial Palace paddy in Tokyo...
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